UTSA hosts lecture on liberal arts as lifetime degree

(Oct. 21, 2005)--The UTSA College of Liberal and Fine Arts will host Robert Patten, the Lynette S. Autrey Professor in Humanities at Rice University, speaking on "Beyond Vocational Training: Liberal Arts as a Lifetime Degree" at 7 p.m., Monday, Oct. 24 in the Main Building Auditorium (0.106) on the 1604 Campus.

Patten earned master's and doctoral degrees from Princeton University and has written extensively on Charles Dickens, Victorian poetry and prose, 19th century British literature and art, European fiction 1700-1900 and the history of publishing.

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Since its inception, he has been an officer of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP), serving as director and then treasurer (1999-2003) and vice president (2003-2005). He will be the president of the society until 2007. Additionally, Patten was director of The Dickens Project at the University of California at Santa Cruz and director of the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals.

Patten was selected by the Phi Beta Kappa Society as one of two professors in the Couper Scholars Program, which involves making a lecture tour of a series of universities.

Established by Phi Beta Kappa in 2004, the program is named for Richard W. Couper, a longtime champion of the liberal arts and sciences who was instrumental in helping Phi Beta Kappa receive the grant. Couper is a former president of the New York Public Library and the Phi Beta Kappa Fellows.